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Monday, 12 July 2010

Pandora aims to level economic playing field with radio

Antony Bruno has a good article outlining Pandora’s economics and economic strategies. Of note to radio broadcasters is Pandora’s support of the Performance Royalty Act. Bruno writes:

The $30 million in performance royalties paid by Pandora last year represents 60 percent of its revenue. Compare that with satellite radio, which pays 15 percent of royalties for the same content, and terrestrial radio, which pays nothing. …¶… [the RPA] would force terrestrial radio broadcasters to pay performance royalties for the first time. While beneficial for labels and artists, such a requirement would also help put Pandora and traditional radio on more equal footing. ¶ To achieve the kind of scale that [Pandora founder] Westergren envisions would require expansion to new platforms, particularly to TV and the automobile. Most of Pandora's daily traffic -- about 60 percent -- still comes from computers, …